Announcement

**Paul Wendt** · 05-25-2008, 03:47 PM

fielding positions (12)

[ bold face now highlights the field names or column labels. ]

The first twelve fields or columns concern fielding positions.

Code:

	[u]seasons and fielding positions[/u]
FullSeasons
lf
cf
rf
FSeas1
FSeas2
multiposition
field1
field2
field3
field4
field5

"full seasons equivalent" or "f.s.e. games [in some role]" or simply "full seasons" count playing time denominated in seasons, using data on games. For example on a team-season with 162 games played, 81 player games is 0.50 full seasons.

FullSeasons (16636 entries)
-- full seasons played in all roles, career total.
This is based on all games played, commonly presented as Games (G) in the Batting records. For a team-season that played 140 games, 7 games as a pinch-runner and 7 games as a starting pitcher count equally as 0.05 FullSeasons. This field is complete: FullSeasons > 0 for all 16636 mlb players 1871-2006.

lf (384 entries, 2.0 or greater)
--full seasons fielding LF or f.s.e. leftfield games, only if at least 2 full seasons
cf (375 entries)
-- full seasons fielding CF
rf (361 entries)
--full seasons fielding RF

Those three are the only fields in the table that use data on three outfielding positions LF, CF, and RF. The "fielding fields" otherwise recognize only one outfield position OF. In all there are eight so-called fielding positions: P, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, and DH. There is no coverage of pinch-hitting and -running except to note the 186 players who appeared in the majors only in pinch roles.

FSeas1 (16450 entries)
-- full seasons played at first fielding position (named in field1). This field is complete except that it does not recognize the "pinch roles" pinch-hitter and pinch-runner. There are 186 mlb players 1871-2006 who appeared only as pinch-hitters and pinch-runners!

FSeas2 (6562 entries)
-- full seasons played at second fielding position (named in field2). This field is complete except that it does not recognize the "pinch roles". More than 11000 mlb players appeared at only one so-called fielding position, including DH but not the pinch roles.

multiposition : This freeform note to myself covers a lot. At least three types may be useful for other readers.
- A note that begins with the name of a fielding position spelled out such as "pitcher" means that that may be considered the player's primary position but it is not the position featured in FSeas1 and field1. More than 20 pitchers are so identified but only a few famous players at other positions. For example Ernie Banks "shortstop" where field1='1b' and field2='ss'.
- For everyone with more than two listed fielding positions (see field3) this note gives the numbers of full seasons played at the third, fourth, and fifth positions --in order except that pitcher is always first in the format 'p=#.##'.
- A note that begins with "p=#.##" gives the full seasons at pitcher for everyone whose third, fourth, or fifth listed position is pitcher. For example Cal McVey "p=0.52" where field5='p'.

Fielding positions: p, c, 1b, 2b, ss, 3b, OF=outfield, DH=designated hitter

field1 : first fielding position (16710 entries)
The position with maximum full seasons played (FSeas1). This field is complete for everyone who is in the database primarily as a player in the major leagues, in the Negro Leagues, or in Japan (except for a few missing NeL and J).

field2 : second fielding position (852 entries)
The position with second-greatest full seasons played (FSeas2), if at least 1.0 or it seems important. For everyone with field2='p' (36) there is a multiposition note "pitcher" if I think he may be considered a primary pitcher.

field3 : third fielding position (64 entries)
The position with third-greatest full seasons played, if at least 1.0 or it seems important; the threshold is about 0.1 fse at pitcher. A multiposition note gives the number of full seasons.

field4 : fourth fielding position (24 entries)
The position with fourth-greatest full seasons played, if at least 1.0 or it seems important.

field5 : fifth fielding position (6 entries)
The position with third-greatest full seasons played, if at least 1.0 or it seems important.

**Paul Wendt** · 05-27-2008, 05:36 AM

Hall of Fame data (11)

[ bold face now highlights the field names or column labels. ]

These eleven fields pertain to the famous Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

Code:

	[u]Hall of Fame, the real one in Cooperstown[/u]
	[u]basics[/u]
HOF - - membership status [COLOR="DarkOrange"]broadly defined[/COLOR]
HOFvote2008 - - result, latest BBWAA election

	[u]Veterans Committee elections since 2001 reform[/u]
nom2003 - nominations
nom2005
nom2007
nom2008 
nom2009
V03vote - votes
V05vote
V07vote
V08vote

HOF
-- Hall of Fame membership status broadly defined. This is complicated because the meaning is unusually comprehensive. For all Hall of Fame members (286) the entry begins with 'y' (yes, he is in the HOF).
: yu = HOF umpire (8)
: yP = HOF player (228)
: ym = HOF manager (19)
: ye = HOF executive or pioneer (31)

There are five other codes.
: recent = not yet eligible, played in the majors 2003 to 2005 but not 2006 (748)
: ACTIVE = played in the majors 2006 (1243)
: inelig = permanently ineligible: Pete Rose, the Black Sox, etc. This may be incomplete. (19)

: nom39 = one of the 39 Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues stage two nominees or finalists for 2006 election but not elected. This is complete: 17 of 39 were elected (HOF='y?') and HOF='nom39' for the other (22).
: nom94 = one of the 94 Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues stage one nominees but not one of the finalists. This is complete: 39 of 94 advanced in stage two and HOF='nom94' for the other (55).

HOFvote2008 (24 entries, 0 to 100)
-- result of the latest BBWAA election, winter 2008. The scale is percent of votes, rounding down.

Veterans Committee elections since 2001 reform
Nine "nomination and vote fields" cover the Veterans Committee nominations and elections since the summer 2001 reform. The committee meetings if any, and the elections were Feb 2003, Feb 2005, Feb 2007, Dec 2007 (so-called 2008), and Dec 2008 (forthcoming, so-called 2009).

TIP
Use nomination and vote fields together to isolate the results of one election. For example, select nom2008='m&u' and sort by V08vote.

nom2003 (260 entries, 'n' or 'c')
nom2005 (200 entries, 'n')
nom2007 (260 entries, 'n' or 'c')
For every election 2003, 2005, and 2007, the Historical Overview Committee named 200 players or 60 contributors in the first of two nominating stages. Other committees determined the ballots in stage two nominations.
: n = one of 200 players nominated in stage one
: c = one of 60 contributors nominated in stage one

nom2008 (30 entries)
Since another reform summer 2007 there is one nominating stage for every election.
: m/u = managers & umpires on the final ballot determined by the HOC (15)
: exec = executives on the final ballot determined by members of the voting committee (15)

nom2009 (10 entries, 'n')
There will be two "2009" elections December 2008, one for pre-1943 players and one for more recent players. The more recent players have not yet been nominated 2008-08-26.
: n = one of 10 pre-1943 players on the final ballot determined by the HOC

V03vote
V05vote
V07vote
V08vote
Four numerical vote fields give the results of seven elections in numbers of votes for all candidates on the ballot. For the five 2003-2007 elections when there were two nominating stages, everyone on the ballot received votes so the vote data implicitly covers the second nominating stage.

2003 : number of votes on 81 ballots cast for players, 79 for contributors
2005 : number of votes on 80 ballots cast for players
2007 : number of votes on 82 ballots cast for players, 81 for contributors
2008 : number of votes on 16 ballots cast for managers & umpires; 12 for executives --except that '1' means '0 to 2' for the 2008 elections when results were released only for candidates with three or more votes.

**Paul Wendt** · 05-27-2008, 08:55 AM

BaseBall-Fever projects (8)

[ bold face now highlights the field names or column labels. ]

These eight fields cover Baseball-Fever projects and the field names begin 'BBF_'.

Code:

	[u]Baseball-Fever.com features[/u]
BBF_UltimateQuest
[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]BBF_UltimateRank[/COLOR] 
BBF_HallofMistakes
BBF_keltner
BBF_HOF - membership status 2008-08-30
BBF_HOFvote2008 - result, latest election (numbers of votes)
BBF_HOFvotemax 
BBF_SuburbsDraft

BBF_UltimateQuest (group project preliminary rounds, 295 entries)
"The Ultimate Quest for Candidates"

Fall 2007 to summer 2008, user 'Freakshow' led the systematic Ultimate Quest for Candidates beginning with polls covering 14 decades and half-decades (round one) and finally ranking the top twenty eligible players 1 to 20 (round four). This field encodes the results of the preliminary rounds. The first digit is one of {0,1,2,3} and it gives the results of round one polls.
: 3?? = round 1 winner (89 players, late 1860s to early 1990s)
: 2?? = round 1 honorable mention, selected by discussion to fill out round 2 (21 players)
: 1 = round 1 honorable mention, not selected for round 2 (42)
: 0 = round 1 also-ran (111)
The second and third digits of the code give the results of round two and round three polls, if any. There were three round 3 polls covering about 40 years each and the sixteen winners ('333') advanced to the final with four honorable mentions ('332').

For example, '321' identifies a winner of round one (3??); honorable mention in round two, selected to fill out round three (?2?); honorable mention in round three, not selected to fill out round four (??1).

BBF_UltimateRank (official results, 100 entries)
This field gives the official final results of the UQFC project: numbers 1 to 20 for the top twenty in order and '100' for the eighty others who fill the top hundred eligible candidates. The hundred were the 89 round one winners ('3??') plus eleven round one honorable mentions selected by a supplementary two-stage process

BBF_HallofMistakes (group project results, 34 entries)
User 'Freakshow' led a group that sequentially elected 34 Hall of Fame mistakes, players only. Here they are numbered 1 (Fred Lindstrom) to 34 (Tony Lazzeri). The number 34 was 15% of the members officially classified as "players" at the time, a number set by design rather than by vote, so the project may be interpreted as the ranking the bottom 15% of HOF players.

BBF_keltner (individual project, continuing)
User 'AG2004' prepares (Ken) Keltner Lists that assess candidates primarily for the Baseball-Fever Hall of Fame. More than 100 BBFHOF players were elected before AG began this work, so the 100+ players covered tend to belong somewhere between #100 and #400. That is, they are 200 of the more interesting players for a shadow Hall of Fame project.
: k = thumbs up (more than 50)
: o = thumbs down (more than 50)
: ? = undecided (very few)

BBF_HOF (membership status, 311 entries)
: P = player member (249)
: c = contributor member (62)
The BaseBall-Fever Hall of Fame is a continuing group project in the Hall of Fame forum at baseball-fever.com. Annual elections are in October-November.

BBF_HOFvote2008 (official results, latest elections)
number of votes in the most recent elections of players and contributors
Players
: # = number of votes 2008-08-29; those elected should not be listed
: 0 = no votes this cycle, one or more votes sometime this year.
: blank = no votes in any three-week cycle this year
Contributors
: # = number of votes 2007-11; those elected should not be listed
: blank = no votes 2007-11

BBF_HOFvotemax (best result this year, 120 entries)
maximum support in three-week cycles 2007-12 to 2008-08: percent of votes if greater than 50%, otherwise number of votes; this does give the percent of votes for those elected, necessarily at least 75%

BBF_SuburbsDraft (group project results, more than 250 entries)
"The Suburbs of Cooperstown"

Spring 2008, user 'leecemark' led a group of ten who sequentially drafted teams of players, first for the "suburbs of Cooperstown" and then to complete 25-man rosters for Diamond Mind simulation.

: 1-250 = draft choice number (#1 to 200 fill the "Suburbs of Cooperstown")

251-255 = special categories
: 255 = baseball's "permanently ineligible" players (Pete Rose, Black Sox, etc)
: 254 = Japanese players and managers with at least one vote for the BBFHOF - in the database but not eligible for the draft
: 253 = Rickey Henderson and Perucho Cepeda
: 252 = managers draft (only nine because Buck O'Neil is both player #201 and a manager)
: 251 = contributors in the BBFHOF - in the database but not eligible for the draft

The draft rules specified
-14 rounds (selections 1-140). Each of ten participants drafted a starting eight, precisely four starting pitchers, one relief pitcher, and one other player (not a starting pitcher).
- 6 rounds (selections 141-200) to fill the outer "Suburbs of Cooperstown". Each of ten participants drafted six more players including precisely a fifth designated starting pitcher, at least a second catcher, at least one substitute infielder, and no more than a second relief pitcher.
Thus after 20 (selections 1-200) every "team" had 6 or 7 pitchers, precisely 5 starters and 1 or 2 relievers; 13 or 14 other players including one at each of eight fielding positions, at least one substitute catcher, and at least one substitute infielder.
- 5 rounds (selections 201-250) to complete the rosters for simulations that leecemark will run. Most of the final fifty are pitchers.

**Paul Wendt** · 05-27-2008, 09:07 AM

Hall of Merit data (4)

These four fields cover the Hall of Merit hosted by BaseballThinkFactory.org

Code:

	[u]Hall of Merit[/u]
HOM - - membership status
HOMvote2008 - - result, latest election
HOMvetsgroup
HOMfieldpos

HOM (234 entries)
membership status, January 2008 (next election, November 2008)
: m = member, players only

HOMvote2008 (104 entries)
-- number of points scored in the latest complete election, announced 2007-Dec-03 ("2008 Election Results"). Fifty voters participated by ranking their 15 top candidates 1-15 and 104 were named at least once. This field gives the points awarded for all 104. The three leaders were elected.

HOMvetsgroup (57 entries)
-- coded membership in four groups and rank within group
Between 2008 and 2009 annual elections the Hall of Merit is running special projects. This winter and spring four polls ranked the 57 HOM members who are not in the Hall of Fame within groups defined by veterans committee jurisdiction. This field encodes the results.
: HOMvetsgroup = 1xx : Group 1, not yet eligible for any veterans consideration (12)
: HOMvetsgroup = 2xx : Group 2, debut 1943 or later, now under jurisdiction of the living Hall of Famers (12)
: HOMvetsgroup = 3xx : Group 3, debut before 1943 and now under the jurisdiction of a committee to be appointed (12; see 'nom2009' in this guide)
: HOMvetsgroup = 4xx : Group 4, not eligible for the Hall of Fame, other than recent players in waiting (12).
The code is not worth explaining. Sort the data by HOMvetsgroup and you get the players in rank order.

HOMfieldpos (in progress, to be 234 entries)
-- rank within fielding position, up to 1-50 or so for pitchers
Between 2008 and 2009 annual elections the Hall of Merit is running special projects. This spring, summer, and fall the polls will rank all 234 HOM members by primary fielding position. This field gives the rankings 1 to P where P is the number of HOMers who share a position. Through August 2008 six polls have been completed: c, 1b, 2b, ss, 3b, lf. (See 'multiposition' and 'field1' or 'BJfieldpos' to identify the position. See 'multiposition' in this guide.)

**Paul Wendt** · 05-27-2008, 09:11 AM

Bill James data (8)

These eight fields or columns give player ratings and rankings by Bill James for the major leagues 1876 to 1999 only, and old rankings by James for the majors roughly 1895 to 1887.

Code:

	[u]Bill James ratings and rankings[/u]
cWS
BJfieldpos
BJrank
BJrank(87peak)
BJrank(87)
BJ100(87peak)
BJ100(87)
BJ100

cWS (7214 entries)
Career Win Shares is Bill James's marquee numerical rating of major league players. The book Win Shares (2002) provides a list of everyone with more than 140 cWS, 1876-2001, which is in the table and double-checked (1051 players down to 141 cWS). In fine print the book covers all major league players in the timespan (15289). Here there are 6533 entries of at least 10 win shares (cWS>9), the threshold where I tried to catch everyone by skimming for double digits.

BJfieldpos
BJrank (1098 entries, 1 to 125)
In the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (2002), James ranks the top 125 major league players at each of eight regular fielding positions (1000 players) and the top 100 major league pitchers. BJfieldpos identifies the fielding positions and BJrank gives the rankings numerically, 1 to 125. James ranks three outfield positions separately but field1='of' for outfielders.
Otherwise BJfieldpos almost matches field1. The exceptions are ranked at one fielding position but played more full seasons equivalent at another position. (For Ernie Banks BJfieldpos='ss' and field1='1b'. For Paul Molitor BJfieldpos='3b' and field1='DH'.)

In print James has published win shares only for 1876 to 2001. His rankings generally cover early players who continued until the mid-1880s and recent players who were established regulars before the mid-1990s. (Cal McVey finale 1879 and Derek Jeter debut 1995 are not ranked.)

There are 1098 entries rather than 1100 because James lists two players at two positions by mistake. (Jimmy Johnston is RF #105 (deleted) and 3B #105. John Morrill 2B #107 (deleted) and 1B #109.) A few players are ranked at the wrong position by mistake or poor judgment; that is repeated in the table. (Fielder Jones is RF #41, by mistake but included here.)

BJrank(87peak)
BJrank(87)
BJ100(87peak)
BJ100(87)
These four fields give older rankings by James that are nearly parallel to those in the one preceding and one following fields, BJrank and BJ100. The source is the Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (2nd, 1988), an update of the original after the 1987 season; '87' in the four field names is a reminder. Twenty years ago James used parallel rankings by "peak" and by "career" presented in two side-by-side lists; 'peak' in two of the field names marks the distinction.

By fielding position the twin rankings were ten deep (1 to 10) for the eight regular positions, plus multiposition stars 1-4, relief pitchers 1-5, righthand pitchers 1-30, and lefthand pitchers 1-10 (thus 12 "positions"). Those old positions are not reported here. For the eight regular fielders there is a nearly perfect match with BJfieldpos but for both peak and career BJfieldpos='p' covers 44 pitchers in ranks 1 to 30 with three #1 (relief, right, left), two #10 (right, left), and one #11 (right) for example. BJfieldpos='rf' includes two #1 for BJrank(87), Babe Ruth at rightfield and Pete Rose at multiposition star; same for BJfieldpos='1b' and Killebrew; etc. The 1987 rankings are easy enough to figure out but they are not for cut-paste-present, as I have used most of the other fields in the table at BBFever.

Over-all-positions, the twin rankings were Top 100s as in 2002 so BJ100(87peak) and BJ100(87) together run parallel to BJ100. Next!

BJ100 (110 entries, 1 to 110)
-- the ranking in "The 100 Greatest Players of All Time" (New BJHBA, 358-369). The "hundred" include 12 Negro Leaguers, meaning Satchel Paige and eleven who never played in the major leagues. Some of these rankings conflict with those by fielding position. James concludes the article with "players 1-110 on my list" so I have included them too.

**Paul Wendt** · 05-27-2008, 12:40 PM

classification of non-player roles (1)

This classifies everyone who never played or managed in the major leagues and some mlb players in other roles. Thereby it covers all of my "adds" to the database.

Code:

	[U]classification of listed people[/U]
category

category
This field should classify everyone I added to the database (325 people, lahmanID =< 0) and many others (lahmanID > 0) who never played in the major leagues or who are important primarily for non-playing roles.

Uppercase codes represent the classification by Doug Pappas covering the 2003 veterans committee election.
: BB = executive, primarily a high-level BaseBall official
: GM = executive, primarily a major league General manager
: LABOR = Labor leader (Marvin Miller)
: MGR = primarily a major league Manager
: OWNER = executive, primarily a major league club Owner
: UMP = primarily a major league Umpire

Lowercase codes extend that to everyone whose classification may be helpful, in my opinion, including everyone I have added to the database.
: bb = same as above assigned by Paul Wendt
: gm = same " " " " " "
: mgr = same " " " " " "
: owner = same " " " " " "
: ump = same " " " " " "

: wr = primarily a baseball Writer
: pioneer = primarily a baseball Pioneer
: ann = primarily a baseball radio Announcer

The 83 writers ('wr') are winners of the Spink Award, onetime members of a Cooperstown veterans committee, or BBF HOF members and candidates. The 12 announcers ('ann') are onetime members of a Cooperstown veterans committee or BBF HOF members and candidates.

: j-??? = Japan (j-player, j-pioneer, j-manager)
: NeL = Negro Leagues and other segregation-era black baseball plus Latin America baseball, used only for people who did not play in the majors.

: m = major league field manager who never played in the majors. This is complete but there is a class of more prominent managers, category=mgr whether they played in the majors or not.

There are a few miscellaneous entries for BaseBall-Fever HOF members and candidates.

**Paul Wendt** · 05-27-2008, 12:41 PM

vital data (8)

[ bold face now highlights the field names or column labels. ]

These eight fields provide vital data from my desktop baseball database and thereby from lahman5.4 or the baseball-databank for all but the 325 people I have added ("adds").

Code:

	[U]vital data from my desktop baseball database[/U]
lahmanID
playerID
nameFirst
nameLast
debut
finale
bats
throws

lahmanID: numeric code identifying everyone in the database (every row in this table). Positive numbers now between 1 and 20000 are from the lahman5.4 database. Zero and negative numbers identify the 325 adds.
playerID: alphanumeric code identifying major league players only, should be null for everyone who did not play in the majors. This code is used in the internet addresses of player pages at baseball-reference.com.

nameFirst:
nameLast: two-part "baseball name" or "use name" assigned by the SABR Biographical Research Committee (if 0 < lahmanID < 20000; otherwise by me). This is the title of the person's entry in most web and print encyclopedias. Good encyclopedias provide more name data such as 'George Herman Ruth' for Babe Ruth, maybe 'The Bambino' for Ruth or 'Maximilian Carnarius' for Max Carey.

debut: date yyyy-mm-dd of first mlb game played (16637 entries)
-- including one entry for Mark Kiger who played postseason only
finale: date yyyy-mm-dd of last mlb game played (14505 entries)
-- seriously out of date. After 2002 there are only seven finale dates for prominent players. Every retired player with debut after 1884 is covered but there are 105 missing finales for earlier players. All are known and published elsewhere. Retrosheet.org is one good source.

bats: batting hand L=left, R=right, B=both, blank=unknown
throws: throwing hand L=left, R=right, B=both, blank=unknown
-- SABR.org (for members) and Retrosheet.org include some more research findings.

Sources
The annual (Sean) Lahman Database, sometimes simply The Baseball Database, covers major league players and managers from 1871 to date and other Hall of Fame members. The "other" Hall of Famers include some baseball pioneers, mlb umpires and executives, and Negro Leaguers who never played or managed in the major leagues. This table is based on the 2006 edition 'lahman5.4' which covers 1871-2006.
(The 2007 edition is available from the Sean Lahman's Baseball Archive. It includes all of the 2007 debutantes, all of the 2007 playing records, and some corrections of missing or mistaken data.)

The 'lahmanID' is a positive number, now 1=Hank Aaron to almost 20000, that identifies everyone in the Lahman Database without change from year to year --no change in the numbers except to match changes in the set of people. For everyone in lahman5.4 (major leaguers and Hall of Famers, 0 < lahmanID < 20000), I have simply included these eight vital fields. There are at least seven exceptions: I have entered missing finale dates for players with debuts 1885-1981 --before Julio Franco 1982-- so that the missing finales are limited to pre-1885 players.
(The Lahman database uses the baseball-databank which for these fields follows the SABR Biographical Research Committee with some lag and some clerical error.)

Here there are 492 people who did not play or manage in the majors 1871-2006 and 325 of them are not in lahman5.4 --or the baseball-databank or the baseball-reference.com web encyclopedia. Those are my "adds" and I have assigned them lahmanID negative or zero so they are easy to distinguish and they naturally sort to the top. Most of those adds are
- contributors and "Negro Leaguers" nominated for the Cooperstown or the Baseball Fever Hall of Fame,
- members of Cooperstown's numerous veterans committees 1936-2008, and
- winners of the Spink Award (baseball writers).
All members of the various veterans committees and all Spink Award winners should be included but other VC and Spink Award data is not in this table.

For the "Negro Leaguers" (Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues people) I have entered batting and throwing hands where readily available, usually from James Riley, The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro BaseBall Leagues (2nd ed., 2002). Otherwise the 325 adds have data in only three of these eight vital fields: lahmanID, nameFirst, nameLast.

**Paul Wendt** · 05-28-2008, 02:08 PM

career performance (4) - new, August 2008

[All references to innings pitched (IP) and plate appearances (PA) refer to major league careers 1871 to 2006 only.

Code:

	[U]basic career performance[/U]
IP 
ERA+
PA 
OPS+

IP : career innings pitched, 1871-2006 (7912 entries)
-- everyone with one pitcher game thru 2006.

ERA+ : career adjusted ERA, 100=average, sometime 2008 (891 entries)
-- including all 402 pitchers with 2000 IP.

PA : career plate appearances, 1871-2006 (16636 entries)
-- everyone with one mlb game thru 2006.

OPS+ : career adjusted OPS, 100=average, sometime 2008 (2087 entries)
-- including all 857 players with 5000 PA and all 230 pitchers with 2500 IP.

**Paul Wendt** · 05-29-2008, 05:49 AM

under construction

Skip this page at least for now.

vacated for edition 2
hold this table

Code:

OFseas 	CFseas		[U]CFshare[/U]	BJfield	BJrank		
 5.8	2.2		38.1	cf	52	Mike	Donlin
 9.7	3.8		39.0	cf	55	Ben	Chapman
12.0	4.8		39.8	cf	20	Hugh	Duffy
 8.4	3.8		45.3	cf	104	Burt	Shotton
11.0	5.2		47.2	cf	76	Jose	Cardenal
 7.6	3.7		48.7	cf	38	Pete	Browning
10.6	5.2		49.0	cf	58	Gus	Bell
14.1	6.9		49.0	cf	26	Jimmy	Ryan
 5.9	2.9		49.2	cf	79	Cesar	Tovar
 6.3	3.1		49.3	cf	102	Larry	Hisle
 7.9	3.9		49.6	cf	118	Charlie	Hemphill
 8.7	4.3		49.6	cf	101	Jimmy	Slagle
10.1	5.1		50.4	cf	57	Andy	Pafko
 6.7	3.4		50.9	cf	70	Barney	McCosky
 5.0	2.7		54.2	cf	125	Jimmie	Hall
 7.4	4.0		54.2	cf	123	Rube	Oldring
 6.2	3.5		56.0	cf	117	Bobby	Tolan
11.8	6.7		56.8	cf	12	Dale	Murphy
14.1	8.1		57.4	cf	90	Tom	Brown
 8.8	5.2		59.0	cf	51	Chick	Stahl
 6.9	4.1		59.0	cf	109	Johnny	Bates
 8.5	5.1		59.8	cf	31	Al	Oliver
							
OFseas 	CFseas		[U]CFshare[/U]	BJfield	BJrank		
 7.1	2.5		35.0	rf	118	Johnny	Wyrostek
 8.0	2.8		35.0	rf	58	Tommy	Holmes
 7.8	2.8		35.7	rf	101	Jim	Northrup
 7.0	2.6		37.0	rf	94	Frank	Demaree
 6.5	2.4		37.2	rf	77	Von	Hayes
11.7	4.5		38.5	rf	39	Kiki	Cuyler
 6.1	2.4		39.2	rf	107	Bake	McBride
11.6	4.8		41.4	rf	53	George	Hendrick
 7.6	3.3		43.5	rf	64	Chili	Davis
14.7	6.6		44.9	rf	19	Andre	Dawson
 8.4	3.8		45.3	rf	89	Tony	Armas
10.3	4.9		47.4	rf	20	Reggie	Smith
10.2	4.9		48.1	rf	17	Bobby	Murcer
 9.7	6.3		64.8	rf	59	Bobby	Thomson
12.1	8.3		68.7	rf	41	Fielder	Jones
							
OFseas 	CFseas		[U]CFshare[/U]	BJfield	BJrank		
14.0	5.0		35.7	lf	7	Al	Simmons
14.0	5.4		38.7	lf	37	Jim	O'Rourke
 7.8	3.3		42.5	lf	105	Ken	Henderson
 8.9	3.8		42.9	lf	113	Tilly	Walker
 6.8	3.1		45.7	lf	100	Hoot	Evers

**Paul Wendt** · 05-29-2008, 05:56 AM

Illustration 1

Scads readers will be interested in some of the fields featured here, three ratings and all-time rankings by Bill James (cWS, BJfieldpos, BJ100), career playing time measured by innings and plate appearances (complete), and career quality measured by OPS+ and ERA+ (for thousands of players).

Bold column headings are field names abbreviated for this display.

Code:

[B][U]cWS()[/U][/B]	[B][U]BJfield[/U][/B]	[U]BJ100[/U]	[B][U]nameF[/U][/B]	[B][U]nameL[/U][/B]	[U]IP[/U]	[U]ERA+[/U]	[U]PA[/U]	[U]OPS+[/U]
176	46		Don Newcombe	2155	114	988	85
321	18		Vada	Pinson			10403	110
223	28		Roger	Maris			5846	127
144	52		Lefty	O'Doul	78		3659	143

These four players were among the leaders in the latest veterans committee election (V07vote >= 0, not shown). Don Newcombe pitched 2155 major league innings at ERA+ 114. Pinson and Maris never pitched in the majors (IP null; that field is complete thru 2006). O'Doul pitched 78 innings at adjusted ERA missing (ERA+ null). The calculation is difficult but I have entered ERA+ for all pitchers with 1500 or more innings and for many others. Vada Pinson appeared 10,403 times as the batter (PA=10403), about double Maris, triple O'Doul, and ten times Newcombe. (Newcombe played little when he was not pitching, but Maris and O'Doul were regular players with short careers among Hall of Fame candidates.) Over his shorter career, O'Doul was a higher quality batter than Maris (OPS+ = 143>127).

Bill James credits Newcombe with 176 win shares and ranks him 46 (BJfield=46) among all major league pitchers (field1=p, not shown). He doesn't put any of these players in the best 110 overall (BJ100 null; it runs to 110 and includes several from the Negro Leagues).

**Paul Wendt** · 06-14-2008, 05:14 PM

Illustration 2

This selection from the data features the top twenty in the 2007 Veterans Committee election for players (sort by 'V07vote'; 'nom2007'='n' for players, not other contributors). How have they fared at the BBF Hall of Fame and at the Hall of Merit?

Note. This provides some perspective on the players whom the veterans committee supports but it may be seriously misleading. The 2007 voters were living Hall of Famers and Spink Award or Frick Award winners. Hereafter the living Hall of Famers alone will have jurisdiction over players who debuted in 1943 and later, in the major leagues or Negro Leagues, and they will not vote on earlier players or on contributors.

Bold column headings are field names abbreviated for this display. Two of them are given in full one line above.

Code:

		BBF_vote2008	HOMvote2008
[U]V07vote[/u] [U]BBF_HOF[/U]	[B][U]BBFvote[/U][/B]	[U]HOM[/U]	[B][U]HOMvote[/U][/B]	[B][U]nameF[/U][/B]	[B][U]nameL[/U][/B]	[U]debut[/U]
57	P		m		Ron	Santo	1960-06-26
52				34	Jim	Kaat	1959-08-02
50					Gil	Hodges	1943-10-03
47		3		23	Tony	Oliva	1962-09-09
33					Maury	Wills	1959-06-06
26	c		m		Joe	Torre	1960-09-25
17		5		150	Don Newcombe	1949-05-20
16		1			Vada	Pinson	1958-04-15
15					Roger	Maris	1957-04-16
15				223	Luis	Tiant	1964-07-19
15	c				Lefty	O'Doul	1919-04-29
14		4			Al	Oliver	1968-09-23
14				7	Mickey	Vernon	1939-07-08
14		3			Curt	Flood	1956-09-09
12	P		m		Minnie	Minoso	1949-04-19
12					Cecil	Travis	1933-05-16
11					Marty	Marion	1940-04-16
11	P		m		Dick	Allen	1963-09-03
10	P		m		Joe	Gordon	1938-04-18
9	P		m		Ken	Boyer	1955-04-12

Ron Santo, Jim Kaat, Gil Hodges, and Tony Oliva were the leaders in this election with 47 to 57 votes (V07vote=57 for Santo, etc). There were 82 ballots cast (see V07vote in this guide); needing 75% Santo missed election by five votes.

These players are not in the Cooperstown Hall of Fame (not shown; there has been no opportunity since the featured election). Five of them are players in both the BaseballFever Hall of Fame (BBF=P) and the Hall of Merit (HOM=m): Santo at the head of these veterans committee results and four who rank 15th to 20th! The BBF HOF has also elected Joe Torre and Lefty O'Doul as contributors (BBF=c) and the HOM has elected Torre (HOM=m). Only a few of the others scored a few votes in the latest election at BBF (BBFvote>0) when there were 18 ballots cast (see BBFvote2008 in this guide). Luis Tiant and Don Newcombe have a lot more support than any of the others at the Hall of Merit (HOMvote>>0); nine of the 13 nonmembers (HOM null) have no support there (HOMvote null).

Lefty O'Doul was the earliest of these players in the majors (debut=1919-04-29), roughly contemporary to Babe Ruth. The others played around WWII and more recently (debut>1933). Among them Travis, Gordon, Vernon, and Marion in chronological order played before 1943 (debut<1943) so they are no longer in the veterans jurisdiction of the living Hall of Fame members. Another committee will be appointed. Gordon and Vernon will be two of ten players on that ballot (nom2009= n, not shown).

**Paul Wendt** · 08-21-2008, 05:28 PM

revised edition -- Now Available 2008-09-12

The main revision may be providing six career measures for most or all(!) mlb players, 1871 to 2006.
- Innings Pitched
- Plate Appearances
- Full Seasons played in all roles, full seasons equivalent "batting games"
- Fielding Games at first position, f.s.e.
- Fielding Games at second position, f.s.e.
- Win Shares (1876 to 2001)

The first five are complete thru 2006 and career Win Shares covers thousands of players including "all" (subject to clerical error) down to 10 cWS thru 2001.

For example,

Code:

IP	PA	[B]FulSea[/B]	FSeas1	FSeas2	cWS	
		FullSeasons
0	13940	20.72	17.35	1.33	643	Hank Aaron
0	1095	2.69	1.43	0.85 	13	Tommie Aaron
1109	5	2.88	2.88		81	Don Aase

The Aaron brothers never pitched in the majors. Tommie appeared at the plate 1095 times, 8% of Hank's PA. Hank played 20.72 full seasons equivalent, including 17.35 fielding his primary position ("outfield") and 1.33 at his second-highest position (1B). Tommie played 2.69 f.s.e. including 1.43 fielding his primary position (1B) and 0.85 at his second position ("outfield").

Don Aase pitched 1109 innings and appeared at the plate only 5 times. He played 2.88 full seasons equivalent, always fielding his primary position, pitcher. As a pitcher he naturally generated many more win shares than Tommie Aaron (81 to 13) in similar playing time (2.88 to 2.69 full seasons equivalent games).

For another example,

Code:

[B][U]FulSea[/U][/B]	[U]lf[/U]	[U]cf[/U]	[U]rf[/U]	[U]FSeas1[/U]	[U]FSeas2[/U]	[U]multiposition[/U]
FullSeasons
20.64	6.38	5.47	2.18	13.95	2.60	2.33, 1.65, 0.95-ss LF BillJames
8.50				3.54	2.46	p=0.52 +1.68, 1.40
14.46	5.61			6.19	4.38	1.99, 1.03, 0.85-dh LF BillJames (catcher?)

	[U]field1[/u]	[U]field2[/U]	[U]field3[/U]	[U]field4[/U]	[u]field5[/U]	

	OF	1B	c	3b	ss	Jim O'Rourke
	C	1B	of	3b	p	Cal McVey
	OF	C	3b	1b	DH	B.J. Surhoff

Jim O'Rourke played 20.64 full seasons equivalent including 13.95 fielding his first position "outfield". He put in 6.35, 5.47, and 2.18 full seasons at the three outfield positions (sums 14.03 > 13.95 because he switched between fields in some games). His second to fifth positions were 1B, c, 3b, and ss, where he fielded 2.60 full seasons (FSeas2), 2.33, 1.65, and 0.95 full seasons (the multiposition note). Bill James ranks him among the leftfielders.

Cal McVey, a member of the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings, played 8.5 full seasons in the major leagues from 1871. That includes 3.54 f.s.e. fielding his first position catcher and 2.46 at his second position firstbase (FSeas1, FSeas2, field1, field2). His third to fifth positions were outfield, 3b, and pitcher. He worked 0.52 f.s.e. at pitcher (always listed first in the multiposition note), 1.68 and 1.40 seasons at OF and 3b.

Since Charlie "Piano Legs" Hickman, debut 1897, no one is listed at five positions without one being DH. B.J. Surhoff is one example and DH is only his fifth position at 0.85 full seasons. Perhaps he should be considered a primary catcher, his second-highest position by playing time, 4.38 full seasons.

**BlueBlood** · 08-21-2008, 06:44 PM

Does anyone use it?

Now that I know of its existence, yes. When you have the update finished, I'll definitely want this handy tool. It's a wonderful trove of information you've compiled here. :applaud:

Your full seasons equivalent in particular is something I desperately need.

**Second Base Coach** · 08-21-2008, 06:53 PM

It appears the time to click on that and get the file has expired.

Announcement

Data available - Ratings and "Halls"

Data available - Ratings and "Halls"

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